The 10 Different Types of Insomnia (Part 2)

July 17, 2013

What’s up! Welcome back to our series about the 10 different types of insomnia. So far, we’ve covered the kinds of insomnia caused by a medical mental condition and certain foods or drugs or substances, and just the plain old general insomnia. Remember him? Yep, I said “him.” If you didn’t get the inside joke, better read through Part 1 first before moving forward with this post.

You done? Very good. We’re back for the rest of the series, so let’s get this show on the road.

Behavioral Childhood Insomnia

Now this is much much lighter than the other types of insomnia that I’ve recently told you about. This kind of insomnia only made it to the list to be considered a type of “insomnia” by the skin of its teeth because it’s not really as bad as the others.

Anyway, here’s the deal. It basically occurs mainly with children who are under the supervision of a parent or guardian who enforces their bedtime. This kind of “insomnia” kicks in when bedtime isn’t being strictly implimented. They basically stay awake until they’re told to sleep. So the formula is basically like this: No bedtime enforced = No sleep. Hence, the Behavioral Childhood Insomnia.

Adjustment Insomnia

Also called acute or short-term insomnia, Adjustment Insomnia is actually pretty common with the populace, and I can honestly and confidently say that everyone has experienced this at least at one point in their lives. Why? Look at what causes it in the first place.

This type of insomnia is caused by transient stress. The adjustment insomnia also suddenly disappears as soon as the source of that stress is gone. See, that’s why it’s called transient or temporary. The insomnia itself disappears as fast as the source of it comes and goes. Easy come, easy go.

Another thing that can be defined as “transient stress” is too much good excitement. Remember the night before your first date were you couldn’t sleep due to excitement? Yeah. That’s it. Actually, even love can cause it. Check out this article that relates love and insomnia.

Unspecified Insomnia (Organic)

Nope, I’m not talking about eco-friendly stuff or vegetables here. I’m still talking about insomnia. There are two kinds of unspecified insomnia. The first one is organic, and the second is nonorganic. Let me make this clearer for you.

Unspecified nonorganic insomnia is when known substances (like food, medication, etc.) have been dropped out of the equation in the process of looking for the main source of the insomnia. It’s also probably caused by a very hidden mental disorder that’s not very obvious with the patient. It’s also probably due to an underlying physical, physiological, or behavioural factor that isn’t very easy to pinpoint.

Due to the flurry of uncertainties, a lot of diagnosed insomniacs are labelled as having “unspecified organic insomnia” because they’re still “on hold” for a more specific diagnosis.

Unspecified Insomnia (Non-organic)

In stark contrast to the previous disorder sub-category, specific substances like food or drugs have been found to be the culprit, or the main source of the disorder. In comparison to unspecified organic insomnia, both of their specific causes (note, I said causes, not the source) are still unclear and remain to be so.

No you’re not

Paradoxical Insomnia

This barely makes it in our list of “legit” insomnia because this particular “condition” doesn’t even deserve to be counted as “insomnia”, although it still does for some reason. So this is the thing. Paradoxical insomnia is labelled on to a person who claims that he or she has “severe insomnia” even though they don’t have any sign of extreme and/or radical sleep deprivation. They just feel or think that they have insomnia.

It’s actually not very severe, but it seems severe because of their overrated claims that they have it. It’s not very far from exaggeration, but sometimes, they just say so because to them, they overestimate how much time they spent not sleeping at night, and they underestimate the total sleep time that they had.

There you have it, so in this series so far, we’ve tackled 8 different kinds of insomnias, so stay tuned for Part 3 for the remaining two types. But so ‘long for now, and I bid you God bless until the next time. Sweet dreams, sweet child.